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Weekend Rollade, comeback marketing and insomnia attack! (Part dos)

Comeback marketing… What is that about? Well, you all know Burger King, this hamburger fast food chain store once opened its door for business in Indonesia, sometimes in the 80’s/early 90’s. But for whatever reason it closed down and Indonesia had its burger shot from McDonalds, A&W, Wendy’s, the not so dead but not alive Jolly Bee, the deceased Arbys, the recently opened hotshots and the many small local burger joints. All of them are barely survive on selling just burgers, or they shift their selling strategy and survive by selling something that the Indonesian market wanted. McDonalds nowadays sells more fried chicken then burger, so are A&W, Wendy’s and the likes. This is because as most Indonesians’ are Muslims so chicken are considerably safest animal to eat, it’s also cheap. So how are the burger only joints? They suffer, they choke, they are dieing sloooooooooooooooowly, case in point, Hotshots. If you happen to read this and live in Jakarta, at Kelapa Gading area, just go to La Piazza and see the void of buyers at Hotshots counter. The burger itself is one of the nicest, I love it… But it’s price is something to be left for the rich to enjoy.

So, a burger joint is not the best idea to open in Indonesia is it? Not really, and here it is, comeback marketing in its full glory! Burger King is back and what do you know? They have 4 registers, and each are full of people queuing to buy the burger. How can this be? How can something that came back from the dead sell something in a place where people don’t necessarily consume that particular product?

The answer is very simple my friends… Coming back from the dead or in the case of Burger King, a hiatus, is sometimes a good thing. Sun Tzu mentions that retreating is a way to live and fight back another day, therefore there is no shame on doing that. Burger King while on its hiatus really done their marketing work carefully, and answers what Indonesian’s really wanted, affordable and fresh.

So Burger King now adopts an open kitchen concept where customers can see their product being cooked directly in front of them (with safety glass of course), and what do you know, it’s quite cheap. One average burger of Burger King is half the prices of Hotshots burger, which are freshly grilled also, with the same gimmick Burger King used.

Comeback marketing is not simple, and like the above example I haven’t elaborate more on the subject… Hey! It’s 4 o’clock in the morning and I haven’t slept yet! So pardon my absent minds. I will elaborate more next week, but let me give you all a snippet. Comeback marketing is tricky; first you need to know why the company left a particular region at the beginning. Then, you need to know why they are coming back to that region. Lastly you need to know how the company are going to approach the surely changed social condition of the market… Till next week.

So about my insomnia… according to Wikipedia, I have a transient insomnia, caused by a short term anxiety… D’oh, I’m broke and there are really important stuff I need to buy. Ah, what the heck… I’m used to being depressed and my body is starting to shut off anyway. Damn it! Tomorrow is a busy day too, I’m really hoping for that day when I can sleep, knowing that when I wake up, there’s that special somebody next to me.